memory_alphafandomcom-20200223-history
Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron116.txt
Subject: Answers Date: Wed, Jul 22, 1998 15:06 EDT From: RonDMoore Message-id: <1998072219062400.PAA24612@ladder03.news.aol.com> <> 1. Will we be seeing Tom Riker (or Kai Opaka, Ensign Sito, Mrs. Troi, any TNG or TOS character) this season? 2. How long does it take to write/shoot an episode? 3..Is Kira getting a promotion? 4. Will this be the last season? (Asked every season) 5. What was Worf (or any alien) saying and why didn't you subtitle it? <> I'm not sure if we'll be doing this or not. At the moment, it's not clear how much the new Dax will have to do with Worf at all this year. <> I won't argue with your feelings; you have every right to feel anything you want. However, given the fact that I do not share those feelings, I think that you do, in fact, have to prove your position in order to make any headway. You can't debate a feeling or an emotion. For example -- some people feel very, very strongly that flag burning should be outlawed and that this prohibition should be written into the Constitution. I happen to believe that this is an emotional overreaction and reflective of a fundamental misunderstanding of the meaning of free speech in a free society. I can acknowledge the deep and very real feelings of people who see the flag burning as an insult to the memories of those who died in its service while at the same time demanding that a debate on amending the Constitution not be reduced to arguing about who is more patriotic or who's a "real" American. Feelings cannot be denied, but they can sometimes be misguided or even vile. Who would argue that hatred and racism are based in real feelings and emotions? And yet those passions do not, and should not carry the day in reasoned debate. So, I'm sorry to keep arguing with you, Catbyte, but I'm not going grant your position more credence simply because you feel strongly about it. And as far as the "many women on this board feel the same" argument, I've said before that I'm not counting heads and the recent revelation that four people on this board supporting your view were actually only one person using four different screen names is only one illustration why. <> I've said many times that I have never, ever had a meeting with the studio about appealing to the "male demographic" of the show. Nor has anyone else on the staff. The studio has done loads of market research on the show, but to date, we've never changed an episode or tailored a story to attract more men. I've also explained several times that we do care about how women are portrayed and that we simply don't agree with your assessment that Kira and Dax were out character in the 4th season or that they've been behaving inappropriately in their romantic relationships. <> In the original outline, we had included a Garak-Kira storyline which had them going off to the Badlands in an attempt to find and intercept Dukat. Garak had been obsessively looking him for months and then got a lead on his movements which suggested he was in Dominion territory and might be crossing back over the border soon. Garak and Kira go out to the Badlands to lie in wait for him, but in the end they are tricked into capturing the wrong ship, allowing Dukat to slip past them and arrive on DS9. We dropped this story because ultimately it went nowhere and served only to make our heroes look bad. Another difference was that Dukat was originally going to steal an orb from the temple on DS9 and use it to kill the Prophets. A small squad of Jem'Hadar soldiers attack the station, causing chaos and giving Dukat time to get into the temple. Dax realizes that the attack is really a diversion and she races to the temple, finds Dukat and a few Cardassians attempting to take the orb. But she's outnumbered and soon disabled. Dukat executes her as retribution for the death of Ziyal, hoping to cause Sisko the kind of grief he has already experienced. This story was the subject of much wrangling among the staff, Michael, Rick, the studio, and just about everyone involved. In the end, we decided that the diversionary raid wasn't working and that it was hard to get Dax in the Temple by herself or even with only a couple of Starfleet security guys -- if she thinks there's something really going on, why not take 20 guards with her? Also, the execution angle was dropped as too brutal and that she should at least go down with a phaser in her hand. <> Quite probably. <> We'd like to do one more Mirror Universe story. <> The point we latched onto was that Dukat could've been Prefect without technically being in command of Terok Nor. Also, we theorized that the construction of the station could've taken a very long time and that would explain why there was no actual commander before Dukat. <> I thought "Fargo" was vile. To me, it was a mean-spirited film with an ugly heart. It did not poke gentle fun at its characters and their foibles, it mocked them and ridiculed them. The people in Fargo were held up as stupid, low-class idiots. Everything from their accents to their eating habits were savaged and I felt it was done without any purpose except to get a cheap laugh at their expense. I also thought that the only redeeming quality to the film was the perfomance of Frances McDormand, whose innate dignity shown through even though I don't think it was the intent of the film makers. Now, I happen to like and admire the Cohen brothers as a rule, but this film left a very bad taste in my mouth and I've been somewhat appalled at the critical raves its received. <> Majel still performs the voice of all Starfleet computers for us, but that's about it. I believe she's also very busy working on "Earth: Final Conflict". <> We've got some ideas... <> Her contribution as a character was our first and primary concern in creating the new Dax. Rom gives us all the sex appeal we need. <> The first phaser shot at Weyoun was to demonstrate two things to the audience: first, that Weyoun wasn't really there; and second, that Dukat was dangerous. The second time he used the phaser to shoot at Kira was to demonstrate to Sisko that he was dealing with a man who was not only delusional, but who might easily kill him at any moment. I agree that having him fire at the phantoms was pushing it a bit, but I felt that it injected some jeopardy into a very talky drama and that it was within the parameters of Dukat's state of mind. <> The Defiant has landing gear? You have to remember that things like CD-ROMs and the various "official" manuals put out by Paramount are not done in conjunction with the writing/producing staffs and that the authors are usually simply extrapolating information based on what's actually been seen on screen. <> I could be wrong, but I believe all of those CGI ships are currently residing in the ILM computers and are generally unavailable to us without the expenditure of $$. <> We hear that so-and-so BIG NAME actor is interested in doing the show all the time, but we've found that when a solid offer to appear on this day for this much money is acutally tendered, that either the schedule or the offer (or both) won't work. <> I loved the "backwards" show, which was a very interesting concept and a hilarious show to boot. But "The Contest" and "The Soup Nazi" are my favorites. <> She's a very important character and she's a regular. <> There'll be a mix, with the later part of the season being more tightly plotted than the beginning. <> Odo and Kira are doing just fine, thank you. <> I think the last Trek video game I actually played was the old arcade game (Starfleet Academy Trainer or something) where you got to sit in the captain's chair and shoot Klingons while trying to dock at varios starbases. <> I wouldn't hesitate at all. <> We're talking about seeing them both. <> The plugs were put in the windows as a money-saving device. If you can see out the windows when the Runabout's going at warp speed, we have to put up a blue-screen and matte in the stars. It costs a few thousand dollars for every shot (I'm not kidding) and so one of the first things to go in our production meetings is any unnecessary shot of warp stars. <> We did see Soran as a complex, tragic figure, but I'd say that any deficiencies in this area have more to do with the script than with Malcolm's perfomance. I don't think we gave him enough to play with to really bring the character into focus. << Ron, is Brock Peters going to play Sisko's father in the season premiere?>> Yes. <> We're working on a couple of notions for Worf & Nog right now. <> Good point. <> I think we're going to mention it at some point. Moore, Ronald D.